Commercial-scale solar food dryer

Conference · Thu Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1981 · Proc. Annu. Meet. - Am. Sect. Int. Sol. Energy Soc.; (United States)

OSTI ID:5601634

Gregoire, R G ^[1]; Slajda, R; Winne, M

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1. Center for the Environment and Man, Inc., Hartford, CT

Under a grant from the National Center for Appropriate Technology, the Hartford Food System developed a plan to involve local farmers in preparing dried produce for the local market. A farmer, representing the Connecticut Farmers' Association for Retail Marketing was selected to demonstrate the feasibility of drying produce as a commercial enterprise. Marketing will take place at local farmers' markets and food co-ops, sponsored by the Hartford Food System. The Center for the Environment and Man's design of this commercial-scale solar food dryer is discussed. It is predicted that the unit will be capable of drying up to 28,600 pounds of produce during the five months from July to November. The diminishing solar energy supply later in the season and the extremely high humidity levels in the summer months create special problems which require high temperatures and large volume air flows to provide optimum drying conditions. To date, the dryer has been built and tests run at a temperature of 110/sup 0/F and as high as 125/sup 0/F with reduced air flow. Improvements to the existing dryer will be made. Temperatures of 140/sup 0/F are expected from the solar food dryer when operating under the design specifications.

• OSTI ID: 5601634
• Report Number(s): CONF-810509-(Vol.1)
• Conference Information: Journal Name: Proc. Annu. Meet. - Am. Sect. Int. Sol. Energy Soc.; (United States) Journal Volume: 4.1
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

14 SOLAR ENERGY
140905*
DESIGN
DRYERS
ENERGY
EQUIPMENT
FOOD PROCESSING
HEAT
PERFORMANCE
PROCESS HEAT
PROCESSING
PRODUCTION
SOLAR DRYERS
SOLAR EQUIPMENT
SOLAR PROCESS HEAT